Japanese Literature Summaries
日本語

Tales of the Peony Lantern — Summary and Characters

A ghost who comes with a peony lantern

Author
San'yūtei Enchō
Published
July 1884
Form
Novel
Genres
  • Horror
  • Psychological
Setting
  • Tokyo
Length
121,700 characters
Reading time
About 4 hr 3 min
Orthography
Modern script and kana

About this work

On the nights of the Bon festival, a beautiful ghost comes with a peony lantern, her clogs sounding as she walks. Around the doomed love of Otsuyu, a retainer's daughter, and the rōnin Hagiwara Shinzaburō, it works in the loyal servant Kōsuke's vendetta and the greed of the people around them: San'yūtei Enchō's central ghost story. Taken down in shorthand from his performance, it also has a place in literary history as a forerunner of writing in the colloquial.

Summary

Hagiwara Shinzaburō, a masterless samurai, is taken by the physician Yamamoto Shijō to the house of Iijima Heizaemon, and there he and Heizaemon's daughter O-Tsuyu fall in love at first sight. But a love across such a difference of station cannot come to anything; and unable even to meet him again, O-Tsuyu pines for Shinzaburō until she dies of illness, and her maid O-Yone follows her soon after. Shinzaburō knows nothing of it; and one night at Bon, while he sits sunk in disappointment, O-Tsuyu and O-Yone appear before him with their clogs going karan-koron and a peony lantern in their hands, and after that they come to him almost every night. Tomozō, his neighbor, spies on them and sees that his visitors are the ghosts of the two women. Shinzaburō protects the house with a charm and a sutra given him by a holy priest; but the ghosts weep and plead, and Tomozō and his wife, bought with a great sum of money, tear the charm away, so that Shinzaburō is killed at last by O-Tsuyu's spirit. Meanwhile, in the Iijima house, the wicked samurai Miyanobe Genjirō and the concubine O-Kuni conspire to do away with their master Heizaemon and take the house for themselves. Kōsuke, the manservant who serves the house faithfully, proves in fact to be closely connected to Heizaemon by birth, and burns to avenge his dead lord. In time the crimes of Tomozō and O-Kuni begin to come apart, and the tangled chain of cause and effect comes round when Kōsuke strikes down his enemies. Evil perishes and good is rewarded.

Characters

Chapter-by-chapter synopsis

The app covers this work chapter by chapter (full text in the app).

  1. 1. About This Work
  2. 2. Main Characters
  3. 3. Main Supporting Characters
  4. 4. The Opening — A Blade Shop Encounter
  5. 5. The Peony Lantern and Karakon-Karakon
  6. 6. A Hundred Ryō to Tear Away the Charm
  7. 7. The Fall of the Iijima House — The Rusted Spear and the Testament
  8. 8. Kurihashi — The Rise of the Sekiguchiya and the Killing on the Riverbank
  9. 9. The Ending — Vengeance at Utsunomiya
  10. 10. Key Motifs and Foreshadowing

The opening (original text)

On the eleventh day of the fourth month in the third year of Kanpō, when Tokyo was still called Edo, the festival of Prince Shōtoku was held at the shrine of Yushima Tenjin, and so great a crowd of worshippers came out that the streets were packed with people. Now, at Hongō Sanchōme there was a sword dealer called Fujimuraya Shinbei, and fine goods were laid out in front of his shop; and there passed by a samurai of perhaps twenty-one or two, with a very fair complexion, fine eyebrows and sharp, clear eyes, a little quick-tempered by the look of him, his side hair drawn well up, wearing a splendid haori and excellent hakama and setta sandals. Behind him came a manservant in a light-blue happi with a bonten sash and a wooden sword bound in brass. The samurai stopped at Fujishin's shop, sat down, and looked over the swords laid out there. SAMURAI: Master, that sword there — I cannot tell whether the hilt binding is black silk or dark blue, but the one with the black hilt and the guard of Nanban iron looks a very good piece. Let me see it a moment. SHOPKEEPER: Yes indeed, sir. Here — bring tea for the gentleman. With the shrine festival today there is such a crowd out that the streets must have been thick with dust; you have had a trying time of it, I am sure. And brushing the dust from the sword: SHOPKEEPER: The mountings are a trifle worn. SAMURAI: So they are, a little. SHOPKEEPER: But the blade itself will serve you very well, sir; it will do perfectly to wear. The blade and the temper are both of thoroughly sound quality.

Tales of the Peony Lantern by San'yūtei Enchō (Aozora Bunko)

The ending (original text)

Since word came that his mother had breathed her last a short while before, it would not do to leave things as they were; and when report was made to the lord of the domain, it was held to be a matter of vengeance, and Kōsuke was given an escort and sent up to Edo. He went back to Aikawa's house, told how he had successfully taken his revenge, and then reported to his chief, Kobayashi. Kobayashi laid the matter before the authorities; and on the ground that Kōsuke had avenged his master, and in accordance with Iijima Heizaemon's will, the house of Iijima was re-established in the person of Kōsuke's son Kōtarō, with Kōsuke as his guardian, and the domain was safely secured. The next day Tomozō was executed; and when the notice of his crimes was read, it appeared, strangely enough, that his wickedness had grown out of the secret love between the young lady of the Iijima house and Hagiwara Shinzaburō. And so Kōsuke, for the sake of his master, of the young lady, and of Hagiwara Shinzaburō, set up an open-air image of the Buddha. This is the origin of the wet Buddha of the Shin-Banzuiin; and thinking that this story too may do something to help the way of rewarding good and punishing evil, I have told it to you at such length.

Tales of the Peony Lantern by San'yūtei Enchō (Aozora Bunko)

Read the original

The original Japanese text is available at Aozora Bunko, and the app downloads the same text for its vertical-text reader.

Aozora Bunko library card

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